Christmas
by I am Thalia daughter of Zeus
Summary: Christmas at Camp Half Blood and Jason and Thalia have a sort of heart to heart while exchanging presents. One shot!


**Hey guys, happy holidays! So, this isn't some of my best work, I'm not that good at writing family but I tried my best. I finished this yesterday, started it too. But if it wasn't for the last minute I'd never get anything done. So I'll try to keep this short, I hope you guys enjoy the story, please tell me off for any spelling and grammar mistakes.**

**This is for the Secret Santa exchange fic at Of Prompts and Challenges. This is for Payson-Nicky-forever. Happy Holidays!  
**

**As always, I don't own the characters.  
**

* * *

Thalia's Point of View:

Christmas day at Camp Half-Blood, where the campers who didn't have mortal families to go to, or who were too far away to see for the holiday spent with the others like them, who couldn't see their family at Christmas. This year Chiron insisted we invite the Romans to join us for 3 days to celebrate, they'd arrived yesterday and already the Camp had seemed fuller, due to the many absences of campers, like Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, and many others, there were a fair few left, but it still had seemed emptier. It was just as fun as well, someone had started a snowball fight after the campfire last night and it was an all out war, every man and woman for his and herself. Before the harpies came and everyone fled.

"Now that all the presents are unwrapped, it is time for breakfast!" Chiron called, we'd all met up in the dining Pavillion where everyone exchanged presents. There was chaos as everyone scrambled to find seats at any table, for once it didn't matter where you sat because of all the guests; it was find a seat or sit on the floor. I grabbed Jason as he passed me hurrying to find a seat, my hand also closed around the gift I'd hidden in my pocket, nobody needed to see this except him.

"Can we talk?" I asked quietly when he was looking at me, Jason glanced around the room quickly and nodded.

"Sure. Come on." Jason agreed, I led him out of the dining Pavillion, making sure no one was following us. We walked towards the cabins, the crisp white snow crunching underneath our feet, the sound filling the silence.

"Merry Christmas, Jason." I added, I looked at my younger brother, he'd only gotten taller since I'd known him, I didn't know what they fed him at the Roman Camp, but whatever it was, he'd better stop eating it. I was the older sibling!

"Merry Christmas, Thalia." Jason replied, my mind automatically travelled back 16 years when a 2-year-old Jason had said that to everyone we passed when we went out, he struggled on the words back then and it made people smile.

"Merry Christmas, mom." I whispered like I used to, as always, silence greeted me in reply. I stopped in the middle between the cluster of cabins, the original 12 stood proud around, the differences in them astounding, but the other cabins stood just as proud, they made it look even more homely.

"I forgot to give you this." Jason said suddenly, I turned to look at him curiously, then I noticed the present he was carrying, I should have noticed it earlier, it was large and rather obvious.

"I have something to give to you, too." I agreed, Jason passed my gift and I withdrew the gift from my pocket, I handed it to Jason and looked away, busying myself with unwrapping my present, when I saw what it was, I gasped. It was a framed photograph of a girl who looked eight years old with black hair and bright blue eyes. In her arms was a small baby; he had wisps of blonde hair and exactly the same blue eyes that were looking up at the girl.

"What-?" I looked up at Jason to see him staring at the small blue elephant in his hands, shock and disbelief written over his face, he made a strangled noise and I felt I should explain myself.

"I don't know if you remember, but I bought that for your first Christmas, you really loved it, when you could move around you carried it with you everywhere, you wouldn't go to sleep without it." I told Jason, his eyes didn't look away from the toy but I could have sworn he smiled.

"I remember. Thanks Thalia." Without warning Jason threw his arms around me in a hug, I stood there awkwardly, I hadn't been expecting this reaction from him, but I hugged him back for a brief second, then I pulled back.

"Now, explain!" I ordered, referring to my gift, I remembered the photo being taken, it was around when monsters started appearing. Jason stopped hugging me and nodded towards the photo.

"Apparently our mother wasn't in the shadows from the media, there was this big special after my birth where she gave an interview about being a single mother and how it was all to easy-" I cut Jason off.

"I know that part, I was eight, not the baby." I reminded him sharply. "How did you get a hold of this picture?" I asked, Jason smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, well when I arrived at Camp Jupiter I was this small kid with nothing but a name, so a few people made it their missions to find out more about me. Someone in New Rome got wind and they sent over this article where they found our names, the person collected papers and magazines, and they had a spare one so I could keep it. It reminded me I wasn't alone." Jason said, I almost smiled, it was a nice story.

"Thanks." I said, I looked at the picture once again. "So, how did you get mom out of the picture?" I asked, I knew mom had sat next to me on the sofa.

"Leo did it, he promised to tell no one of the picture, and I didn't tell him who it was actually for." Jason said, I grinned.

"Don't worry, it's our secret." I teased, I quickly hugged him. "Now let's go hide these before Leo sees." I added, we turned to make our way to the Zeus cabin where we could hide them.

_Thunk_

Something cold and wet hit my back, I turned around slowly to see Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Hazel, Tyson and quite a lot of other people crowding behind them, Leo and Piper included. Percy was holding a snowball in his hands.

"Aww, how cute." Nico said slyly, a smirk on his face I wished to remove.

"I heard we missed a good snowball fight last night." Percy added, I glared at him.

"Don't even think of it, Kelp head." I warned, Percy grinned at me widely.

"Already thought of, Pinecone face." He replied happily, I set the photograph against the nearest cabin, and picked up a handful of snow.

"You're on!" I said before throwing the snowball.

* * *

**Again, I'm not good with family moments but I tried my best. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed, or at least tolerated it. I hope everyone has a good holiday, and plenty of snow, there isn't any here, but it doesn't stop me wishing for it.**

**As always, Peace, love, Happy Holidays!  
**

**Love always, Jeyna. X  
**

**_Jingle bells, Gaia smells._  
**

**_Leo all the way!  
_**


End file.
